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Jeremy Irons and Melanie Laurent. MARRAKECH, MOROCCO – DECEMBER 07: Jeremy Irons attends Dior Dinner held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel as part of the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival on December 7, 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO – DECEMBER 07: Jeremy Irons attends Dior Dinner held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel as part of the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival on December 7, 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO – DECEMBER 07: Jeremy Irons attends Dior Dinner held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel as part of the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival on December 7, 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO – DECEMBER 07: Jeremy Irons attends Dior Dinner held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel as part of the 14th Marrakech International Film Festival on December 7, 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)

Festival organizers called Oscar winner Irons “one of the best-loved actors among film fans the world over,” citing The Mission, Dead Ringers and Reversal of Fortune as just a few of his memorable screen moments that will be remembered during the festival, parts of which are broadcast live on national television.

Irons will join French actress Isabelle Huppert at the North African festival, where she will serve as president of this year’s jury. Remaining jurors and the competition selection will be announced soon. The Marrakech Film Festival runs Dec. 5-13.

British actor Jeremy Irons (64) is among the very biggest stars of international cinema. Since his breakthrough in 1981 with the TV, “Brideshead Revisited” and the movies with “The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” he is constantly present in movies and television. His specialty are shady characters, whether it be the 40-year-old literature professor who falls in “Lolita” (1997) for precocious 12-year-olds, or the ruthless bank boss in “Margin Call” (2011), the financial crisis in the largest provides a way to rake in more money.

Irons has been married since 1978, with the Irish actress Sinéad Cusack, they have two grown sons, one of whom, Max, is also an actor. The couple lives partly in Oxfordshire (UK), and partly in a self-renovated Irish castle in West Cork. In the coming weeks, Jeremy Irons is seen in three ways: first as a teacher Raimund Gregorius in Bille August’s “Night Train to Lisbon ‘, based on the novel by the Swiss author Pascal Mercier (in cinemas from March 7). Once head of the family of a witch clan in fantasy film “Beautiful Creatures” (in cinemas from April 3). And finally, also known as Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI. in the TV series “The Borgias” (the third season running in the U.S. on April 14 on).

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“It’s great fun to play people who reinvent themselves for their own rules”

The British film star Jeremy Irons plays the main role in the film adaptation of Pascal Mercier’s “Night Train to Lisbon”. Before the premiere in Bern, he spoke to the Migros magazine about shooting, his other projects and his penchant for shady characters.

A world star you meet not every day. And British actor Jeremy Irons (64) has a reputation during filming is not always easy to be because of a certain tendency towards perfectionism. The slight nervousness turns out to be unfounded. Irons is not only extremely friendly, he is also very relaxed. Middle of a conversation, he gets up, fishes a tobacco package from his overcoat pocket, rolls a cigarette and walked with it to the balcony door of the hotel room as he continues to answer questions. He then puffing contentedly out into the icy Bern air, behind him on the wall of the room large a Non smoking signs …Jeremy Irons, in the next few weeks you will be featured in three completely different roles. As a somewhat conservative Latin teacher in “Night Train to Lisbon”, as scheming Pope in the third season of “The Borgias” and as head of the family of a witch clan in “Beautiful Creatures.” How do you choose your roles?

Always for very different reasons. “Night Train” has attracted me in many ways. I like director Bille August, we have worked together before and then also shot in Lisbon, a great city. And I liked the book extraordinary, as I read it then. It seemed, however, that it would be difficult to film because it is so much revolves around ideas and philosophical questions. But if someone hinkriegt then Bille August. So I thought that might be a very nice five weeks, and so it was.“The Borgias” is a rare excursions into your television, you can delay the first left?

Not really. Nowadays fewer and fewer films are being shot out of the way I like to do: movies, which are directed more to a smaller audience, but still cost quite a bit. More and more writers wander therefore from the television, where he produced many great quality series currently. Neil Jordan, whom I admire very much, did that too, after he had tried once before about ten years ago to make a movie out of the material. And he asked me if I would take on the lead role. It was one of these projects, as I like them, and it’s a really great role. So I said yes and am now engaged in five months.That’s quite a time commitment, it was therefore already in collisions with other projects?

Until now. Or if so, then my agent told me nothing about it (laughs). So far it has been successful, so to work around.“Beautiful Creatures” seems to be a relatively unusual choice of roles …

It’s not a movie I would see myself in the movies. But I had not worked for some time for a major Hollywood studio, and I know that this strip as part of “Twilight” are very popular. The figure has wit and a couple of nice scenes. So I thought, why not?You sometimes take roles because they pay well?

I did that about three times in my life, and it’s been a while. “Dungeons & Dragons” is an example, and then there was a film in which I played someone with a white face … I do not come just for the title …“The Time Machine”?

Exactly. I’ve done both while I renovated our little castle in Ireland. Since it was very useful to get a good fee.When was the last time you have to audition for a role?

Phew, that was long ago. After drama school for roles in the theater, or about the age of 22. Nowadays, I get offers and decide what I want or do not want.There are times that you absolutely want to have a role, but do not get it?

It happens, but the last time is also a long time ago. I would have loved to have had Robert Redford’s role in “Out of Africa”, the director Sydney Pollack unconvinced. He and Redford were good friends. The presentation of “Night Train to Lisbon” discussed many philosophical questions, and religion is a recurring theme. Are you a believer?

These questions were the reason that I was attracted by the project. I’m quite a spiritual person, I believe in a whole lot. But I’m not one to like to hear about a group or club. My wife and my children are Catholic, and I myself was baptized Protestant. But religion is not such a big issue in the family. Whenever we go to church at Christmas and Easter, then a Catholic with us in the area. It is a kind of center for a very widely dispersed community, and follow whatever is completely there. It is always very nice. This church is like the glue that holds together the people. About 20 years ago, have you ever filmed with Bille August in Lisbon. How he has changed since then, as the city?

He has not changed one bit. More children he has, but that’s it already. I also believe that I have not changed that much. Nevertheless, everything was new, because it was about a whole different story. And we turned in another corner of the city, especially in the old city – beautiful, especially because it crumbles a bit to himself.Did Bille August? Much freedom left in the interpretation of the figure, or he knew exactly what he wanted?

He knows very well what he wants. But he also looks for the people that he knows that they bring him. If you do something that does not fit him, he says that too. Which is good. A director is a kind of sounding board that you need as an actor. The hope is that you hit the right note, but can never be sure, because you do not even see or hear. Since it needs someone who helps in fine-tuning. This of course requires that you trust the taste of the director what I do at Bille.But that was it different?

Oh yes, I will not mention names here but.And then you rebel?

It is often only realized when you see the finished film. During filming, I thought: Well, but that can not be justified. Then I saw the movie and thought, oh no, all wrong, we should do it the way I wanted it.You have enjoyed your short visit in Bern during filming last year, I have read. How well do you know Switzerland?

Not very good, unfortunately. I go once in a while skiing in St. Moritz, and now by the way again after that visit here in Bern. But that’s it for now. “The Borgias” You’re yes then for television, is somehow different?

Not at all. It’s like being on a movie set, even a bit more luxurious, we have more time and better equipment. But that’s just because it’s a quality series. I have friends in the U.S. turn the soaps, which sounds much less pleasant.Rodrigo Borgia is a very complex character, a ruthless schemer. And yet you play it so that you like him, and hopes that its work plans.

A very interesting character. I read a lot about him, a lot of research, and has opened up a very wide spectrum character, I can work with. The popes after him have hated him, and their interpretation of it has come to dominate. This has ruined the reputation of the Borgia family rather, with all the stories of incest, for example. I am convinced that this is a caricature, and how I interpret it too. I’m looking for the nuances, the contradictions that we all have within us. We behave sometimes good and sometimes bad.They like to play these kinds of characters, right? About in “Lolita” …

This role interpretation have taken me some really bad. You played the seducer of a 12-year-olds to “nice”?

I was asked: How could you do that? My answer: people who do bad things are not necessarily bad.However, you seem to play the bad guys like to correct: “The Time Machine,” “Die Hard with a Vengeance” …

Oh yes. Why are bad guys bad? Because they do not follow the rules, they find their own way, outside the conventions of society. It’s great fun to play people who invent their own rules. And it gives the audience the opportunity to watch people who behave like they normally can not, but secretly would probably also like.You once said that you are particularly proud of “Dead Ringers,” “Lolita” and “The Mission”. Does that still?

In “Lolita” I could not really show all that I can, it is certainly my most complete film. On the other two I’m still proud, though I’m never as good as I would have liked. “Lolita” was a risky role, you smoke, you ride a motorcycle – you obviously like to flirt with danger.

In fact. Risks brings enrichment to life. I’ve also never regretted. If something does not work out as hoped, then I say to myself, okay, but it seemed to make sense, as I have decided to make it so. So, what the heck. Do not regret, but just keep going. I try not to look back, not forward, but to live in the moment. They always say that it had to do with smoking, that you have such a great voice. But I know some smokers, and none has such a voice! How do you do that?

(Laughs) I have no idea. She just is. Good genes! And of course it’s great to have something that stands out.Is it true that on a film set can sometimes be difficult because you are a perfectionist like that?

That was probably one way, but I’ve put it behind me. Today I am much more relaxed and try to have a good time especially. If all fun and relaxed, it increases the chance that they will do a good job.Your wife and your sons are indeed also worked as an actor. Look at each of your films to give advice and criticize?

That’s what we do. However, the movie business has changed dramatically since the time when we started. This makes it difficult for us, a young actor to give career advice. But it is important to know what we think of his work. The same goes for me and my wife when it comes to our films. Has your wife ever really criticized heavily for one of your works?

Oh yes, and how. I once played some time ago in London theater. She looked at the dress rehearsal and then said: “Thou art really bad in the play” (laughs) Very often, you do not look likely. All are constantly traveling somewhere and making films. Is not it hard sometimes?

Oh, because we have become accustomed, it was ever thus. We meet when we can. Our sons both live in London. And if we are spending time together, we enjoy it even more.

Jeremy Irons on Shakespeare, The Simpsons, and enjoyable inconsistencies

Jeremy Irons’ filmography encompasses everything from Disney to David Cronenberg, plus a 1990 Best Actor Oscar win for Reversal Of Fortune, but his first efforts as an actor were on the stage, and one of his initial entryways into the dramatic arts came via Shakespeare’s work. Which explains why he was tapped to host an episode of PBS’ new documentary series Shakespeare Uncovered; Irons’ instalment, airing February 1, will cover Henry IV and Henry V. In conjunction with the show, Irons spoke to The A.V. Club during the Television Critics Association winter press tour about how he came to participate in the program, which of the villains he’s played is the most Shakespearean, and how his training prepared him to play a bar rag on The Simpsons.

The A.V. Club: What was the initial pitch when you were approached about Shakespeare Uncovered?

Jeremy Irons: Well, it was that we were going to make a documentary about the plays, about the locations, where they were written, the historical occurrences around the period, and where Shakespeare diverges and where he follows history, and why. They said to me, “We’ll do it all in four days for you. Do you want to do it?” And I had the time, and I thought it was a very interesting idea. Because anything that opens up Shakespeare to an audience is good. You know, he has a lot of disadvantages. But he’s often taught badly, and people haven’t seen great productions, so they sort of think, “Mmm, I don’t think so. I think that’s a bit heavy.” So anything that can make people realize that he’s a fantastic playwright, a fantastic story-writer, and open it up for them in their minds… well, it must be a good thing.

AVC: Did you have carte blanche to select which plays you wanted to tackle for your episode, or did they say, “Hamlet’s off the table—David Tennant gets first pick because he used to host Masterpiece—but anything else is up for grabs”?

JI: [Laughs.] No, I was doing Henry IV at the time [for BBC2’s The Hollow Crown], so they thought it would be interesting if I did the one that included the two plays that I was doing.

AVC: What was your first introduction to Shakespeare?

JI: I think it was The Winter’s Tale… Well, no, no, no, it wasn’t. I’ll tell you what it was: It was reading ’round the class in my English lessons at school. And I think perhaps once a week in English, we would choose a bit of a Shakespeare play, and we’ll all take characters, and we’d sit at our desks and read them. But it wasn’t until I began to see productions at Stratford and… I can’t actually remember the first Shakespeare I saw, though I think it might have been the Hollow Crown series, with Alan Howard. Peter Brook’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, I remember seeing. That was pretty early on. And suddenly I realized how theatrical Shakespeare is, how alive, how wonderful it is when it’s opened up by a great director and a great company.

AVC: Was it Shakespeare that made you want to become an actor?

JI: He was one of many. No, I wanted to become an actor because I wanted to become a gypsy. [Laughs.] I wanted to live the gypsy life!

AVC: You mentioned The Winter’s Tale a moment ago. That was the first Shakespeare play you actually performed, correct? At the Old Vic?

JI: The Bristol Old Vic, yeah.

AVC: The Winter’s Tale is one of the lesser-adapted Shakespeare plays when it comes to film and television. Do you have any theories as to why that is?

JI: Hmm. No, I don’t. But I’d actually love to film it. It’d be very interesting to film, because it’s all about two sorts of people. It’s about the really buttoned-up and the very loose people, the people who are always touching, which is like I am. The so-called Bohemian people. [Laughs.] Especially now, in this world where we’re so politically correct, and you’re not allowed to hold the hand of a little girl under the age of 14, and you’re not allowed to do this, you’re not allowed to do that, you’re not allowed to smack your children… You have to be so correct. And you compare that with the ’60s and ’70s and that time, with hippies and free love. And to have those two societies rubbing up against each other, which you have in The Winter’s Tale, it’s interesting.

AVC: Watching your episode of Shakespeare Uncovered offers a reminder of just how many of Shakespeare’s lines have filtered into pop culture, such as Christopher Plummer delivering the “dogs of war” speech in Star Trek VI.

JI: [Laughs.] Yep, yep, yep.

AVC: Do you have a favorite example of Shakespeare being adapted for current tastes in popular culture?

JI: Well, I mean, I saw Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, which was a very interesting way to show the play. Ian McKellen’s Richard III. Again, an interesting film. I suppose you could argue The Lion King, in a way. [Laughs.] We always say that he has entered our language with so many of these colorful phrases that we use in life. I suspect that they were phrases that were being used at that time, which he used in his plays. I’m not sure he necessarily invented them all.

AVC: You mentioned The Lion King, but looking beyond Scar, who would you say is the most Shakespearean villain in your back catalog?

JI: I think Simon in Die Hard With A Vengeance, a man who enjoys creating mayhem and living his own rules. Quite Shakespearean.

AVC: Earlier today, you suggested that you might have a performance of King Lear lurking within you somewhere. Is that something you anticipate letting out anytime soon?

JI: Oh, I don’t know. How soon is soon? [Laughs.] In the next 10 years, let’s say. I’d like to do Iago [in Othello], who is a wonderful character. A smiling villain. I’ve also never done a Don John, in Much Ado [About Nothing], who is a really unhappy man. I’ve always tended to play people who relish playing against the rules.

AVC: Rodrigo Borgia on The Borgias seems to qualify for that category.

JI: Oh yes. He is wonderfully bad, isn’t he? [Laughs.] He’s a man who… well, one of the great things about Shakespeare is that his characters are inconsistent, and that’s something I think makes him a writer above most writers, because inconsistency is what we as people are full of. We maybe don’t see it in ourselves too often, but we are inconsistent. We think one thing one day and something else another day. We act a certain way one day and another way a second day. And Shakespeare knew that. Now, that’s very hard to play on film. It’s very hard to get a writer who will write characters who are inconsistent. They see it as somehow a failure. But when playing the Pontiff, the great thing is, I’ve had time to develop those inconsistencies. The fact that he was no doubt a man of God—maybe his faith wavered sometimes, but he was a man of God, as most people were then—and yet he is able to authorize assassinations and live in a way which we would think, “Well, that’s not very godly.” But then you look at George W. Bush, and you think, “Well, he was also calling himself a man of God,” but he also sanctioned actions around the world—basically in Iran—where thousands of innocent civilians were killed because of his decisions. So we all contain a bit of that.

AVC: Many actors admit to taking certain TV and film projects solely to subsidize their theater work. Has that ever been the case for you?

JI: It’s sort of incidental, really. I mean, you manage a career, you have to pay bills, and… sometimes I have done work to subsidize my life. [Laughs.] And to subsidize other works, yes. Less so now. Now I’m lucky enough to be comfortable enough that I can just choose what I want to do. It sort of doesn’t matter too much what I’m paid for it, and I do what I enjoy doing now. But when I was starting, yes, very much, television would subsidize my theater work.

AVC: In what way did your Shakespearean training prepare you to play a bar rag on The Simpsons?

JI: It taught me the importance of the smallest character, the most insignificant character, who not only has a great history, but who is as involved and as caring and as emotional as the largest character, the most active character. So it taught me not to take the bar rag for granted and to realize that he was, in his soul, Hamlet. How’s that? [Laughs.]